Dr. Williams is Associate Professor in psychiatry. His main line of research focuses on how neuronal networks function in the hippocampus, the learning and memory centre of the brain. His work focuses on how a neuronal network can generate brain rhythms important for memory and synaptic plasticity. In addition, he also has an interest in how neuronal networks are perturbed in brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia. Dr. Williams and his team have developed an array of techniques, such as a complete hippocampal structure maintained alive in vitro to perform state-of-the-art electrophysiology and molecular biology. His team is also using a newly developed technique called optogenetics, which offers the unprecedented possibility to manipulate neuronal and network activity with light, using genetically targeted neurons. The general goal of the laboratory is to understand how neurons contribute to brain rhythms and how they are altered in brain diseases.